Gear Mk. Trithemius

This is my first Gear, and a tester of sorts. I have a couple of these now and will use them to work out my painting approach to the bigger Gears like Goethia, Theurgia and Grimorium. Legacy of Solomon may be different but I am not sure yet, and the Golem Gears such as Hecatondies Sigma Zero will be certainly be approached differently.

Gears come in two flavours so far, and the more common type is considered Technomagical Powered Armour, and that is the class that the Trithemius seems to fall into. Gears are mostly developed from examples of rediscovered technology known as Lost Loggia in the Anima Tactics background. Most of them have Damage Resistance, cannot take Advantage Cards, and many are Immune to Poison.

The Gear Mk. Trithemius is a sort-of Agent type of Gear; it is not an Agent as such, but counts against the limit of Agents, and like Agents has a small menu of options to customise its abilities. Unfortunately, the creators appear to have printed the game card for the unit with an error in its AP recovery rate (the card has it as way too fast for its Level value), although this has not been officially addressed in an Errata or update that I can find. I hope that is rectified fairly soon.

Since I mainly play against Wissenschaft when I play Rob, I hope we get a game in with one or more Gears fairly soon, although countering the decent Armor values prevalent among Gears will take some working out.

I enjoyed painting this and turned it around quite quickly, so the second one may be done before too long. Possibly.

Running Totals
Anima Tactics Units: 163 (added: Gear Mk Trithemius x2; October)
Anima Tactics Units Painted: 59 (55 different models)
Painted Units Percentage: 36.2% (percentage of AT minis owned and painted)
Anima Tactics Range: 152 units (including 2 LE minis;including September as he still is due for presumably imminent release)
Percentage of Whole Range Painted: 36.2%
Year to Date Target: 18 of 24 units (3 per month target; 75%)

Raziel Archetypum

My rate of painting has fallen off a cliff once again. This month has required a lot of attention for the course I am doing and as part of the Pulp City creative team. For some reason, I just have not made even the odd five minutes for painting to keep things ticking over.

I started this one at the beginning of May to try to rectify that, but soon lost all momentum. With the bank holiday weekend I decided I needed to get a mini finished, and this made the most sense in terms of stage of completion. My enthusiasm for painting, which is limited at the best of times, has pretty much gone out the window.

The Raziel Archetypum is a step up in raw power from the weaker (lower Level) Undead that Black Sun can draw upon. As with most other non-unique Undead, there are some options in terms of upgrades, and when assembling the mini I chose to give it Dual Raxxors (the huge swords). The paint scheme reflects my usual approach to Black Sun foot soldiers.

I am hoping to get some games in in the next month or so, so a Black Sun Party could well get a run out before too long I hope!

Running Totals
Anima Tactics Units: 158 (added: another Hellhound and another Wrath of Nature; also I have 4 minis on back order....)
Anima Tactics Units Painted: 53 (51 different models)
Painted Units Percentage: 33.5% (percentage of AT minis owned and painted)
Anima Tactics Range: 151 units (including 2 LE minis; added September as he is due for imminent release)
Percentage of Whole Range Painted: 33.8%
Year to Date Target: 12 of 15 units (3 per month target; 80%)

Ahriman, Lord Of Darkness

My fourth Anima Tactics mini finished in March, and this was done from base colours to finish in a few hours, and completed in one day - something my haphazard painting process normally forgoes!

I had a vague idea of what I wanted to do for this mini for a while, but never made a start. Then I changed my mind, picked up the mini, and wanted to try a couple of new-ish paints in my collection from Reaper. The final scheme then formulated pretty quickly and I quite enjoyed doing a 'quick and done' paint-job. Nothing fantastic about the painting here, but done quickly to a satisfying standard, and yet another mini finished, and a step closer to number 50.

I am particularly chuffed to get another Dark Summon finished as that then frees up more balanced options for games.

Ahriman, Lord of Darkness is a unit that has benefited from the points costs revisions in the 2013 Saga III & IV Update. Costs have dropped to 35 and 45 Levels for the two differing forms. But in all honestly I can see no good reason to use the lesser form as the greater form has 1 extra point of Attack, but more importantly has an extra Bind Point, meaning it can stay in the game longer. Mitigating that Bind Point difference requires for more  than the equivalent cost in my humble opinion, so a no-brainer. And there is more; the higher level version benefits from Intangibility, meaning only enemy units with Magic or Ki Attacks or Effects, or of a Level higher than Ahriman, Lord of Darkness' Atman of 60 (so characters of Level 65 and above), can actually harm this particular Summon - pretty nasty then.

In the background, the Lords of Darkness appear to be the elemental opposites of the Maidens of Light. Since I am planning to eventually paint a second Elhaym, Maiden of Light, it would make sense to paint a second Ahriman, Lord of Darkness. Another purchase to make then!

Running Totals
Anima Tactics Minis: 155 (added: nothing, but thinking of ordering a second Arhiman, Lord of Darkness...)
Anima Tactics Minis Painted: 47 (45 different models)
Painted Minis Percentage: 30.3% (percentage of AT minis owned and painted)
Anima Tactics Range: 150 (including 2 LE minis)
Percentage of Whole Range Painted: 30.0%

Type-020: Verrier

It has been a long lay-off from painting for me (due to working on the recent Pulp City Kickstarter), at least relative to my productivity in 2013. Therefore I am pretty pleased to have painted a few minis over the past few days.

I have managed to paint some Anima Tactics and non-Anima Tactics stuff that I hope will ignite some overall painting momentum, with a view to getting back on track.

This weekend I finished three minis including this one, and in the past few days I have prepped several other Anima Tactics minis: Luther Delacroix; another Al-Djinn; and Freya. While I already had a lot of stuff prepped, I am hoping completing 'some things' right now helps spur me on to getting some serious painting done in the next few weeks and months - time will tell of course, as ever!

This model has been in my pile of blisters for a few months, but having some time off work this week freed up a bit of painting time, so I had a small surge of motivation and assembled and painted this quite quickly by my standards; it effectively 'jumped the painting queue', but having not finished any painting for several weeks I am okay with that. While not my best work, I am happy with the results especially for a quick turnaround.

In game terms, one Type-020: Verrier can be taken per every 150 Levels of a Party. As an Undead unit you cannot attach Advantage Cards to them, so the key choice regarding the Type-020: Verrier is which upgrade to use. I suspect my primary choice will be the Queen until I get to grips with Guidance Points and Controllers; the Queen option allows lower-Level Undead to ignore the Uncontrollable rule. The options allow this unit to be fielded at Levels between 30 and 40. I have another Type-020: Verrier waiting in the wings (pardon the pun!), although not yet assembled, but with this unit finished and the next (to be shown in a few days), my Black Sun force is really growing; I expect to show a new Party picture very soon, and hope to get them on the table in the next few months.

I am also closing in on having a complete collection of the minis. There have been a couple of recent releases which I have yet to pick up (Gear Mk. Trithemius and October), so by my count I need five more minis for the complete set. Getting closer, although the paint total still falls short!

Running Totals
Anima Tactics Minis: 155 (added: Luther Delacroix; Mijhail Mashen’ka; a second Type-020: Verrier; and a second Type-004: Hellhound/ Hellhound)
Anima Tactics Minis Painted: 44 (43 different models)
Painted Minis Percentage: 28.4% (percentage of AT minis owned and painted)
Anima Tactics Range: 150 (including 2 LE minis)
Percentage of Whole Range Painted: 28.7% (this includes the two new releases)

Ignis, Fire Demon

This has been stuck in the dread 'painting queue' for rather a long time. Bits of work were done on it, but very haphazardly from the outset. For example it was initially undercoated in black; then I realised that was a big mistake, so used some yellow spray to re-undercoat  it. Then some of the red base colour got slapped on and I noticed there was some extra gap filling to be done as the red was painted. So it simply got put to one side due to encountering those problems (mostly of my own creation). After very recently painting Maximo Ligori, I had a little bit of renewed motivation, so did a bit of work on Genma (also a very long time in the painting queue - as can be seen from this post here from 20 months ago), but thought to myself, I really had to finish Ignis, Fire Demon.

I did a quick bit of dry-brushing and washes on the red body, and set to work on the flames, before some final highlights to the body of the model. The flames have been the most time consuming, and although a bit of a challenge (reversing the usual progression of dark to light to light to dark from recesses to out aspects of the flame does take a little getting used to for me), I am actually reasonably happy with the results, and very happy it is finally done and finished. Not brilliant, but done, and a real change of palette from the recent Black Sun Undead units and Faust Orbatos and Maximo Ligori.

I had originally envisioned having two or three of these, but given how long it has taken me to get around to finishing it, I think I will stick with one. It is quite a tall model, approximately three and half inches from the base to the tip of the flames, so matches the Wrath of Nature in height (but certainly not bulk!).

With finishing this one, I have painted over 25% of the models I have for Anima Tactics. The next one I finish should take me to exactly one quarter of the available range, unless they suddenly release some more in the next few weeks!

Having more Summon options now means I really do need to get some more effective Summoners painted up (specifically Belith, Genma and Covel), and probably at least one more Dark Summon for a little bit of balance. In game terms Ignis, Fire Demon has seen a cost reduction from the 2013 Update. I know from reading the Cipher Studios Forums some players did not view it as a particularity effective unit previously, but there seemed to be some strong points about it that looked good to me (high Damage, base size, its special abilities), so with reduced cost it does look tastier than before. As a summon, there are no Advantage Card issues to plan for, so the primary decision is whether to take the super-cheap lesser form or the slightly more expensive greater form.

Running Totals
Anima Tactics Minis: 147 (added: still not added anything for a while, but that may change soon-ish)
Anima Tactics Minis Painted: 37
Painted Minis Percentage: 25.1% (percentage of minis owned and painted)

Maximo Ligori

I do rather like this mini; well I like the range immensely. but this one really appeals to me. There is a lyric from a Cult song that goes something like "He's a real heavy dude, in a killing mood" which to me sums up Ligori very well. I think the imagery is just right (sharp edges, asymmetrical armour, brutal looking weapon, chains etc.), and the name is just perfect in my humble opinion. In other words he looks like a 'bad mutha'.

This was a fairly quick paint-job, although broken up into sessions of downtime from some course-work I am doing. The only real tie-in to my planned Azur colour-scheme is the dark/black cloth, but I hope he will still fit in nonetheless. However Azur are definitely down the pecking order of my painting right now, so it will be a while before more are done. At least I think so...

On his Actions and Abilities is where Maximo Ligori gets very interesting if you ask me. This unit is now a few years old, but still fits a useful niche. All his Actions and Abilities are geared to him getting stuck into close combat. One of the key interactions is his Raxxor Slayer Action, which doubles Damage on a Critical Hit; combined with Critical Mastery and a decent base Damage value, and use of Gnosis means he has something like a 36% chance of doing double Damage if I have worked out the probability correctly. Line him up against targets with no significant Armor and less than 16 LP and he has a good chance of taking them out in a single attack unless they Dodge.

The downside for Ligori is that to function optimally he needs to take Damage in close combat, and although he has good LP, his Armor value is not huge. So keeping him alive is important. That makes me think that taking Raphael's Gift or Heart of Gold as Advantage Card would perhaps be the best option. Alternatively good old Elemental Weapon or Primal adds to the one-shot kill capability he can muster.

Not sure when Maximo Ligori will actually get a run out, but I look forwards to it when he finally does.

Running Totals
Anima Tactics Minis: 147 (added: continues to be nothing!)
Anima Tactics Minis Painted: 36
Painted Minis Percentage: 24.5% (percentage of minis owned and painted)

Odin Goldsmith

My second Empire unit, and this is a big one.

For those not familiar with the mini, Odin Goldsmith is mounted on a 40 mm base. He is a big beast of a model, even if he does not look it at first sight. Nowhere near Wrath of Nature size, but still 45 mm tall, and his weapon? That is approximately 2 3/4 inches long!

Like I said - he is big!

Odin Goldsmith is the warrior incarnate; his background describes that for over thirty years he has been present in every documented conflict and involved in hundreds of secret special operations, that he is an unstoppable fighting machine.

Colour-scheme wise I wanted to stick with what I laid down with Janus Faith, but having no tunic I substituted the blue onto his cloak. Even though there is an established official colour scheme for Empire which I *think* varies by rank, I want a more uniform look for my Empire so I will be sticking with the combination with some exceptions like Samiel.

I am looking forwards to unleashing Odin Goldsmith in some games as he has a couple of cool Action, but a really cool special ability (Chain of Blows), which can keep going with the right amount of stupendous luck. It could be interesting to see that ability explode as it were.

Stats wise, he has very high armour, a lot of Life points and attack 5/Damage 6, so pretty hard-hitting. Definitely one to sue Gnosis on to maximize the chances of Chain of Blows.

His main drawback is that he has a relatively very low AP regeneration, but this improves as he takes more damage, although for the best 4/4 he will be close to being taken out, so it maybe worth considering Advantage cards that offer synergy with how he is set-up such as Last Stand (+1 Attack and +1 Damage at below half LP); Talisman of Eriol (re-roll one die); Primal (since you are likely to be using Gnosis etc anyway, he should hopefully hit, and Primal stacks that up); and any of the usual suspects like Supernatural Weapon, Elemental Weapon or Supernatural Armor.

Ultimately he looks like he can be a heavy hitter, but one that is fallible. Definitely want to get some games in with him as soon as possible.

Getting this finished was a little surprising as I had started work on Luzbell at the time, then thought I would do 'a bit' on Odin while she was drying at some points, Then I carried on, and on, and eventually finished him. I really have little control over what I finish and when sometimes! Luzbell is nearly done and I have a few more Empire (Vayl; Veronica; Erika; and Female Empire Agent) in the possibly infamous 'queue', so I hope more will be done soon. That said, I have a painting challenge for another game next month, so that may slow things down a little on the Anima Tactics front, same for August, but rest assured I will keep plugging away.

Running Totals
Anima Tactics Minis: 127 (added: nothing!)
Anima Tactics Minis Painted: 21
Painted Minis Percentage: 16.5% (percentage of AT minis owned that are painted)

Wrath of Nature

My first Summon!

Not that I have painted up a worthwhile Summoner yet (I do not see Sarah Reindhold as a useful Summoner at this stage of my understanding of the game), but hey, it is a start...

The blurb for Wrath of Nature describes them as 'an incarnation of the unleashed power of Gaia'.

Summons are non-unique, meaning a Party can include more than one of each type subject to the Levels limit. Summons do not start in play, but are brought to the battle-field by the Summoner they are attached to. Summoning has an Action Point cost according to the Summon's rules. In addition, most Summons have a choice of Level cost which they can be bought for, with a lesser and more powerful version available. That difference may be in characteristics, or Innate Abilities or Special Actions. The Level cost of Summons is accordingly lower than perhaps an equivalent model with the same abilities (if there was such a thing), and this is reflected in their Atman rating, which is their relative worth. In addition they can be used within an Organization Party without taking up the Wanderer slot.

The Wrath of Nature is a bit of a lumbering beast with a lot of Life Points and Armor, but not too mobile. The fact that it is huge should be evident from the third photograph alongside Sarah Reindhold.

I would like to get at least one more Summon and a decent Summoner painted up before my planned games later this month.

In the mean time the painting queue changes randomly as ever, and Yuki had some work done today: not even a Summoner! So whether I get done what I want is anyone's guess...


Running Totals
Anima Tactics Minis: 89 (added a lot since the last update: Kerberos; Veronica; Deadmoon; Jerome; Justine; Cordelia Rosalind; Damaris; and Momiji)
Anima Tactics Minis Painted: 12
Painted Minis Percentage: 14.6% (yep, it has gone down! That splurge has dented my progress, so time to get splashing those hairy sticks onto minis!)